The campaign is built around several key pieces of IKEA furniture that the company wanted to promote towards the end of 2023.

The campaign was formed of individual print pieces that brought together a cultural insight from the Halloween celebrations and a product insight based around IKEA’s design philosophy to add a fresh and unexpected angle to typical Halloween marketing.

The campaign drove viewers in store to experience the products in real life, and IKEA’s e-commerce platform to order directly. The messaging continued from advert to brochureware, to online description, creating a seamless flow of campaign communication.

The fear that a monster could be hiding in the darkest corners of their bedroom is a fear shared by children the world over. It has been the basis of children’s stories, films and animations for generations. During Halloween in October, many Western cultures embrace the idea of a scary holiday by dressing up as monsters, watching scary movies and decorating their houses with spooky decorations.

Young families love IKEA furniture for a peaceful sleep, But children often worry about monsters hiding in the dark. This fear only increases during “spooky season”.

IKEA turned this fear into a product benefit with "Monsters Not Included”: A campaign that subverted the classic Halloween ad format by showing no monsters whatsoever.

IKEA featured furniture that monsters traditionally make their homes: under the bed, inside closets and behind curtains.

The campaign literally shone a light at these products, showing them to be 100% monster free while highlighting their cosy design.

The campaign captured the attention of the press on Halloween night, providing record coverage far beyond the media scope of the campaign.

The Drum magazine called it their “Best Halloween campaign”. Design Taxi covered the campaign in depth, stating that “IKEA is playing ghostbuster this Halloween”, placing the campaign into the culture of Spooky Season. The campaign was also featured in trade press, including Adweek, Campaign, Muse by Clio, B&T and Horizont.

The attention from the coverage, and the ads themselves, saw a 52% increase in online store traffic during the campaign’s run from 18th - 31st October, causing a 13% increase in all items featured in the “Monsters Not Included” adverts.

By the end of the campaign, the films alone had reached 7.3mil viewers.